Arcologies! Anyone a fan?

Anybody like arcologies? You know, the big self-contained cities in one building, where there's no crime or pollution and everybody works together for the good of the community? Its sort of like a Utopia in a can

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Not only have you got to deal with the 'sick building' syndrome on a
mega-scale, you've got to integrate all societal levels so the 'community'
survives. Great for insects, forget about it for homo sap.

How will you maintain zero population growth? An Arcology’s resources are finite with regards to space. When a baby is born, do you kick the oldest person in the building to the curb? What about sunlight? There will certainly not be enough room on the roof for everyone. Will everybody inside becomes deathly pale and suffer from a vitamin D deficiency? Will Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome run rampant?

Originally posted by NenarTronian
..where there's no crime...

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And why would there be no crime? Consider prostitution. If the community desires it, will building “management” be willing to sanction it even if they don't personally approve of it? Will there be a "red light" district for brothels and other such illicit pleasures designated in its economic plan, or will pressure from moralists result in prostitutes having to work illicitly; in other words, criminally. Teen gangs? Rape? How will you weed out the “undesirables” before they get in?

And, of course, there is the problem of leadership – who would you have making decisions regarding the running of this utopia? History has proven time and again that the more you centralize decision making power, the more you attract predators who seek power to misuse for their own advancement.

No thanks, not for me. I think structures of this type would enforce conformity when mankind’s ideal should be individual expression.

Just look at the housing projects in California to see how this idea works out. Not a very promising idea. The planners and builders of the housing projects had high hopes for their little city within a city, now look at what they have become.